Affiliation

"Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did.""What is it?""Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."

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Incorporating many of the elements from his first weapon, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber was specifically designed to facilitate Skywalker's practice of Form Vlightsaber combat. As per Form V weapon specifications, the lightsaber had a solid casing (either as a whole or in multiple sections for maximum protection against power surge deterioration) and a heavily shrouded blade emitter. The beveled emitter was designed to designate separate facets of the blade for either offensive or defensive purposes. The lightsaber hilt included a ridged hand grip, as Djem So required its users to maintain a solid grip on the hilt.[3] It was also later modified to allow it to operate underwater.[4]

Before being passed to Luke Skywalker, the weapon's hilt had been slightly altered so that the original fastener belt was changed into a ring.

After losing his first lightsaber on Geonosis,[5] Anakin Skywalker set about building a new lightsaber. He carried the weapon during the Battle of Rendili, but it didn't taste first blood until he engaged in a lightsaber duel. The weapon was also used by Skywalker in other early battles such as the battle with Asajj Ventress.[6][7] After the duel, in which Anakin was victorious, the weapon was wielded by Skywalker for the rest of the Clone Wars. Anakin used this lightsaber for many battles to come.

Anakin Skywalker wielded the weapon during the Battle of Teth, using it in a rematch with Asajj Ventress during the Republic's attempt to rescue the Hutt child, Rotta, in order to curry favor with the child's parent, Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Escaping the planet alongside his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, with Rotta in tow, they managed to make it to Tatooine, where they were shot down by MagnaGuard piloted starfighters. Once planet-side, Skywalker sent Ahsoka to take an alternate route to Jabba's palace while he would serve as a decoy for Dooku personally overseeing the operation. Confronting Dooku in the Dune Sea, Skywalker wielded the weapon against the Count in a rematch, before breaking off from the duel when he learned that Ahsoka and Rotta had been ambushed by Dooku's droids.

Anakin Skywalker wielding the lightsaber during his second rematch with Dooku.

Stealing Dooku's speeder bike, he raced across the desert to Jabba's palace and was met by Jabba's interpreter at the entrance. Demanding to know Ahsoka's location, the droid led Anakin into the palace to meet with Jabba, on the condition that Anakin hand over his weapon. Skywalker did so, but when he met with the Hutt crime lord, he learned that Jabba believed Dooku's deception that the Republic had kidnapped his son. In desperation, Anakin reclaimed his lightsaber with the Force and held it to Jabba's throat. Thankfully, before negotiations collapsed completely, Ahsoka Tano arrived with a still living Rotta. Despite his joy at having his son back, Jabba still prepared to execute the two Jedi for perceived slights, only for him to be contacted by Padmé Amidala who revealed that Dooku had schemed with Jabba's uncle, Ziro Desilijic Tiure, to kidnap his son. Jabba spared the Jedi, and made a treaty with the Republic.

During the war, the Republic managed to discover Dooku's location aboard a freighter. Anakin Skywalker devised a plan to get aboard by allowing himself to be captured, leaving his lightsaber with Obi-Wan Kenobi while wielding a replacement, allowing it to be destroyed to make his capture more convincing. Kenobi then infiltrated the ship by entering one of the exterior hatches in a spacesuit. Freeing Anakin and returning the lightsaber, the two went after Dooku. However, Dooku managed to flee through an escape hatch built into the floor of his meditation chamber, with Anakin in swift pursuit. Dooku managed to make to the hangar and take off in his ship just before Anakin could catch him, forcing Kenobi and Skywalker to give chase.[8]

However, the ships flown by both parties were damaged and they crash landed on Vanqor. As the Jedi hunted for Dooku, the Count ambushed them in a cave, telekinetically causing a cave-in. With the Jedi trapped, Dooku stole Anakin's lightsaber and returned to his ship. There he encountered a group of space pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka. The pirates agreed to give Dooku passage to the nearest planet, Florrum. However, en route, Anakin's lightsaber was quietly pick-pocketed from the Count, along with Dooku's own weapon. The Count was taken hostage, and the two lightsabers were kept by Ohnaka as trophies.[9]

Ohnaka proceeded to ransom Dooku to the Republic, and Kenobi and Skywalker were sent to confirm whether it was actually Dooku. However, Ohnaka then double-crossed the two and captured them as well, planning to squeeze more money out of the Republic. However, after several attempts, the Jedi and Dooku managed to escape, reclaiming their respective weapons. Kenobi and Skywalker initially used Ohnaka as a living-shield, but when Dooku fled, they let him go, wanting no unnecessary hostilities from the pirates. However, they also warned Ohnaka that Dooku wouldn't be so forgiving.[9]

After the Battle of Ryloth, Anakin Skywalker was sent on leave for a "meditative retreat". Instead, he went to the Senate Office Building and tried convincing his wife Padmé Amidala to come with him so they could spend time together. Amidala refused, as she was too tied up with her work. As a last ditch effort to sway her, Anakin entrusted the lightsaber to her. However, they were interrupted by Bail Organa calling Padmé off for a Senate meeting. Amidala was forced to leave before she could return the lightsaber.[10]

Unfortunately, a group of bounty hunters, led by the fearsome and bloodthirsty Cad Bane, attacked the Senate Office Building and took the Senators at the meeting hostage. While Bane commenced with negotiations with Palpatine, Anakin attempted to rescue the hostages, but being unarmed, he was brought down. Bound and thrown in with the Senators, he was able to retrieve his lightsaber from Padmé. As Bane and his posse left, Anakin managed to save all present by cutting a hole in the floor, allowing the Senators to escape just before Bane detonated the explosives surrounding them.[10]

Anakin Skywalker prepares to use his lightsaber to execute Count Dooku during their final encounter.

Anakin Skywalker wielded the weapon during the Battle of Cato Neimoidia and the Battle of Coruscant, cutting down numerous battle-droids with the weapon. When Kenobi reminded Skywalker that they were on a rescue mission, and that rescuing the chancellor was more important than blowing up the ship by hand, Skywalker gripped the lightsaber with his mechanical arm so hard that its handgrip creaked in protest.[11] Eventually, he wielded the weapon during his final battle against Count Dooku aboard the Invisible Hand.[12] Giving into his rage, Skywalker viciously used the weapon to beat back Dooku and slice off both the Count's hands. Holding his lightsaber alongside Dooku's weapon at the Sith Lord's neck, Anakin executed the Count at Palpatine's behest.[12]

Soon afterwards, Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were caught in a ray shield trap and were brought before General Grievous. The lightsaber briefly became part of Grievous' collection, with the General planning to execute him with it. However, thanks to careful timing with Kenobi and R2-D2, they broke free and Skywalker quickly reclaimed the weapon, destroying one of Grievous' IG-100 MagnaGuards before cutting down most of the droids on the cruisers bridge.[12]

Later, following the duel between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious, Anakin Skywalker used the weapon to remove Windu's right hand, ensuring the Jedi Master's death, and his own fall to the dark side of the Force. After his conversion into the dark side, Anakin continued to carry his Jedi weapon, though Tionne Solusar later theorized that he continued to wield the blue-bladed weapon to avoid alerting his eventual victims of his recent conversion.[13]

Darth Vader carried the weapon during the march on the Jedi Temple, brutally cutting down hundreds of Jedi with the saber, with notables including the Temple swordmaster Cin Drallig after a brief duel. The weapon again saw use when Vader brought it with him to Mustafar and viciously executed the Separatist council. Its last usage in Vader's hands was in the Sith Lord's battle with his former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader wielded the saber aggressively, but was ultimately cut down by Kenobi's blade due to his own recklessness. While Vader managed to survive, the lightsaber was taken by Kenobi to Tatooine.[12]

The lightsaber remained in Ben Kenobi's possession for the following nineteen years, until he was presented with the opportunity to give the weapon to Luke Skywalker. After rescuing Luke from a Tusken Raider attack, Kenobi presented young Skywalker with his father's lightsaber and explained its previous owner's history (from a certain point of view).[14]

Skywalker's early training with the weapon consisted of Form I velocities onboard the Millennium Falcon.[15] Luke advanced remarkably fast, able to effectively deflect blaster bolts after only one brief session.

After Ben Kenobi's death at the hands of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker continued to wield his father's weapon throughout his early Jedi career. Without Kenobi present to train him, Luke was forced to improvise and self-teach, resulting in an instinctive though highly skilled practice of Form V lightsaber combat.[16] Luke was forced to demonstrate this skill against Vader, though not before Leia Organa took up the weapon and stood against Vader while Luke was incapacitated. Despite her valiant efforts, Leia was only briefly able to hold her own against Vader, being brought down by several light though brutal slashes.[4]

At that moment, Skywalker was able to free himself, and he stood against Vader. However, despite his own skill with the weapon, it was nowhere near enough to stand against the lightsaber's former owner, and Luke was forced to rely on the spiritual assistance of Kenobi to take Vader. Skywalker and Kenobi's spirit both completely exhausted themselves against Vader, but not before managing to amputate his right arm. However Vader, himself weary, stumbled into an ancient well before he could capture the Skywalker siblings.[4]

Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Luke Skywalker used the lightsaber to escape from a wampa, and it was used shortly thereafter by Han Solo to slice open a dead tauntaun to keep the young Jedi alive. During the battle itself, Skywalker used the weapon to cut open a hatch on the bottom of an Imperial walker prior to throwing in a grenade to destroy the enemy vehicle. He then carried and used the weapon during his training under Yoda on Dagobah.

Shortly after this, Luke carried the weapon with him to the Cloud City on Bespin in a bid to rescue his friends from Darth Vader. Engaging the Sith Lord in a lightsaber duel, Luke demonstrated his vastly increased skill with the weapon, impressing its former wielder. Ultimately, however, Luke's lightsaber hand was sliced off by Vader and fell, along with the lightsaber it carried, into the depths of Cloud City.[17]

The lightsaber, still clutched by Luke Skywalker's hand, had become lodged in one of Cloud City's lower air shafts and eventually was recovered by a maintenance drone. The drone deposited the hand and the lightsaber in Smelting Core D. There, it was discovered by Groggin, the Smelting Core's supervisor.

Groggin had no use for the hand and decided to have it incinerated while he would keep the lightsaber, which he planned to melt down. However, the arrival of Darth Vader in the smelting facility prevented Groggin from taking such action. After a round of aggressive negotiations, Vader left the facility with the hand and the lightsaber in his possession. Though he had other plans for the hand and the lightsaber in mind, Vader was compelled by Palpatine to bring the two items to the Mount Tantiss storehouse on Wayland. There, the Emperor made Vader turn Skywalker's hand and lightsaber over to him.

Luke Skywalker gives Mara Jade the lightsaber on Coruscant.

Six years later, the mad Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth ordered that a clone of Luke be produced from the appendage, and that he be armed with Anakin's old weapon. When Skywalker arrived, leading a New Republic strike team to destroy the cloning tanks of Wayland, he was forced to fight the clone, which was being controlled by C'baoth. It was ultimately killed by Mara Jade who then used Anakin's old saber to kill C'baoth himself. Upon the team's return to Coruscant, Luke presented her with the weapon as a gift.[18]

Around 40 ABY, shortly before he became Darth Caedus, Jacen Solo dreamed of his mother Leia Organa Solo using Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber against him, as he was contemplating on whether or not to sacrifice her and his father so he could become a Sith.

The following section contains information from a Star Wars Tales1–20 story that was referenced in no other Star Wars Legends source. Lucasfilm considered all Tales 1–20 content that was not "completely outrageous or intentionally comic" to have some level of canonicity within the Legends continuity. Editor discretion is advised.

During the time around the Second Corellian Crisis, the lightsaber seemed to have been taken from the possession of Skywalker survivors and ended up in the hands of a Dark Jedi.[25]

Ben Skywalker managed to track down the lightsaber, still in the possession of the Dark Jedi. The Dark Jedi was preparing to imbue the weapon with the power of the dark side, but Ben took it from him before he was able to do so. Though it is not known what happened in the ensuing battle, it can be assumed that Ben slew the Dark Jedi as well as the other dark-siders who were present and took his grandfather's weapon as his own.[25][26]

Star Wars Tales 1–20 information ends here.

After the death of his wife, Luke Skywalker retired the weapon, where it remained in the Jedi Temple.[13]

The original hilt carried by Mark Hamill in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back was made from the flash attachment of a Graflex 3 cell flash unit, a flash tube attachment used on forties-era press cameras, with the ridged grip made by gluing portions of hard plastic 'T' track used for the sliding doors of display cabinets (often mistaken for wiper blades) onto the bare cylinder, and the switch plate fashioned from the LED display of a 1974 calculator (In ESB the switch plate was replaced with part of a circuit board).

In the 2004 digitally-remastered version of A New Hope, due to a color correction error, Luke's lightsaber appears green rather than blue in some scenes. This is later corrected in the Blu-ray release.

Anakin's lightsaber and Luke's hand are currently on display as part of the "Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television" in the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington.

The lightsaber prop traveled to space with shuttle Discovery in October 2007 [1].

The prop for Luke's lightsaber was auctioned on December 11 of 2008 for $240,000.

↑The canonicity of this story is in doubt, as Luke recovered his father's lightsaber after Mara Jade slew Luuke Skywalker, the clone that Joruus C'baoth had made. Luke then presented the lightsaber to Mara Jade on Coruscant. However, the story was being told by a group of cultists who might not have known the history, or changed it to suit their beliefs.